The next morning started badly.
His father stood a few steps away from the bed, looking at Sukuna like the child had crawled out of a curse womb instead of his wife.
His mother was still weak, but her arms held Sukuna tightly.
Fujin stood beside her in silence.
His father spoke first.
"We can still do it now."
His mother frowned.
"Do what?"
His father's jaw tightened.
"Take it far from here."
The room went quiet.
Not because nobody had words. Because nobody expected him to say it that plainly.
His mother stared at him. Then at Sukuna. Then back at him again.
"You said what?"
His father didn't look away.
"You saw him."
"He is your son."
"He is not normal."
Fujin said nothing yet.
His mother's voice hardened.
"And Fujin is?"
"That is different."
"No," she said. "It is not."
His father pointed at Sukuna.
"He has two faces."
"He is still breathing."
"He has four arms."
"He is still mine."
"He is a bad sign."
That was when she slapped him.
Hard.
His father's head turned slightly.
Fujin's eyes shifted, but he didn't move.
His mother was trembling now, not from fear, not from weakness, but from anger.
"Don't you dare."
Her voice shook, but it did not break.
"Do not stand there and call him a bad sign when he is your blood."
His father looked back at her slowly.
"You think I want this?"
"I think you are afraid."
"I am."
"Then be afraid alone."
He laughed once, bitter and tired.
"You don't understand."
"No," she snapped. "You don't."
She pulled Sukuna closer to her chest.
"He is my child."
"He is a monster."
"He is your son."
"He will bring ruin."
"And Fujin?"
His father went quiet.
That silence lasted too long.
His mother's eyes narrowed.
"So that is it."
He said nothing.
"You were fine because Fujin hides it better."
"That is not what I said."
"It is what you mean."
Fujin finally stepped forward.
"That's enough."
Both of them looked at him.
His father exhaled.
"Stay out of this."
"No."
"You are five."
"I know."
"Then act like it."
Fujin looked at him calmly.
"You want to throw him away."
"I want to protect this family."
"By abandoning your son?"
His father's face hardened.
"You don't understand what people will do when they see him."
Fujin answered at once.
"I know exactly what they'll do."
That made his father pause.
Fujin kept speaking.
"They'll whisper first. Then they'll fear him. Then they'll try to kill him. If they can't, they'll send stronger men. If that fails, they'll call him cursed and turn the whole age against him."
His father stared.
"How do you know that?"
Fujin didn't answer that.
Instead he said, "I'll take responsibility for him."
His mother turned slightly.
His father frowned.
"What?"
"I said I'll take responsibility."
His father almost laughed.
"You?"
"Yes."
"You are a child."
"I'm enough."
His father took one step forward.
"No."
Fujin didn't move.
"I won't let you throw him away."
His father's expression darkened.
"You don't get a choice."
He moved toward the bed.
His mother pulled Sukuna closer.
"Don't touch him."
His father reached anyway.
Then Fujin stepped in front of him.
Just one step.
That was all.
His father stopped.
Not because of the movement.
Because of the eyes.
Red.
Three tomoe spinning.
Then changing.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
His father froze as the pattern shifted into something deeper, darker, crueler.
Mangekyo.
The pattern bloomed fully.
Not frantic.
Not unstable.
Clean.
Ancient.
Wrong for a child.
His father's breath caught.
"Fujin…"
Then cursed energy changed.
No. Not cursed energy. Something older. Something rough and hateful.
Sand-colored chakra leaked over Fujin's skin like heat.
Shukaku's presence pressed into the room without fully emerging, but it was enough.
His father felt it immediately.
That pressure. That wildness. That thing staring through Fujin's body at him.
He stopped moving.
Completely.
Fujin's voice was calm.
"Don't."
That one word held more weight than it should have.
His father's eyes moved from the Mangekyo to the faint beastly aura crawling around the boy's shoulders. Then to Sukuna. Then to his wife. Then back to Fujin.
For a moment, it looked like he wanted to say something.
Instead he only sighed.
A tired, broken sound.
Then he turned and walked away.
No argument. No pride. Just silence.
His mother looked at Fujin for a long time. Then at Sukuna sleeping in her arms like none of that had happened. Then back at Fujin again.
Her expression softened.
"You really meant that."
Fujin looked at Sukuna.
"Yes."
She smiled then. Small. Warm. Tired. But real.
That kind of smile only mothers can make when they decide to trust something with all their fear.
"Then he is safe."
Fujin looked at her. Then at Sukuna again.
"Yes."
And that was how it began.
---
Years passed quietly after that.
Not peaceful. Just quiet.
Their father never truly accepted what Sukuna was, not at first. But he stopped speaking of throwing him away. That mattered.
Tolerance came slowly. Like a wound closing badly.
He would watch Sukuna from a distance. Correct him when needed. Train him when forced to. Step in if outsiders looked too long.
He never called him son with warmth. But he stopped calling him monster.
That was enough for a start.
As for Fujin and Sukuna—they became inseparable.
If Fujin moved, Sukuna followed.
If Sukuna disappeared, Fujin knew where to find him.
If people whispered, Sukuna smiled in that ugly little way of his and waited for Fujin to stop him from doing something permanent.
He was sharp from the beginning.
Cruel too.
That part showed early.
At six, Sukuna broke a boy's fingers for calling him cursed.
At seven, he bit a man's ear off for spitting near their mother.
At eight, Fujin found him crouched over a corpse with blood on his chin and that look in his eyes.
Not guilt. Not fear.
Enjoyment.
Fujin dragged him away and washed him clean himself.
Sukuna laughed the whole time.
"They deserved it."
Fujin slapped him lightly across the back of the head.
"You don't eat people."
Sukuna looked at him like that was the part he disagreed with most.
"Why not?"
"Because I said so."
"That's not a reason."
"It is for you."
Sukuna clicked his tongue.
"You're annoying."
"And you're disgusting."
Sukuna grinned.
"You still came for me."
Fujin didn't answer that.
He already knew.
Sukuna wouldn't change. Not fully. Maybe not at all.
And the scorn around him only sharpened what was already inside him.
Men feared what they saw. Children copied what they heard. Women pulled their sons away when Sukuna passed.
Whispers followed him everywhere.
Abomination. Ill omen. Curse-born.
Sukuna heard all of it. Remembered all of it.
And every insult planted another body in his imagination.
By the time he was ten, his cursed energy was already absurd.
Heavy. Violent. Dense enough to distort the air when his temper slipped.
It rivaled Fujin's.
That alone was madness.
At the same age, he had started smiling during fights the way starving men smiled at food.
That was when Fujin decided he needed more power.
Not later. Now.
---
He opened the system one night and finally stopped holding back.
He had the points. More than enough.
[SP: 10,284]
He scrolled through the shop. Past the basic jutsu. Past the bloodlines he already owned. Past the weapons and seals.
He stopped at the Bijuu section.
[One-Tail: Shukaku – Owned]
[Two-Tails: Matatabi – 3,500 SP]
He stared at it for a moment. Then pressed purchase.
[Item: Two-Tails (Matatabi)]
[Cost: 3,500 SP]
[Confirmed.]
[New Jinchuriki: Matatabi integrated. Stable.]
The moment the screen faded, heat bloomed in his chest.
Not the rough, sandy heat of Shukaku. Something sharper. Blue. Wild.
A second voice joined the tanuki's growl.
"So you're the one."
Shukaku snorted. "Great. Now there's two of us in here."
Matatabi ignored him. Her presence pressed against Fujin's mind like a cat testing a new owner.
"You carry yourself well. For a child."
Fujin didn't respond. He was busy feeling the new power settle.
[Kekkei Genkai Unlocked: Blue Fire Release]
The flames that answered his call weren't red or orange. They were blue. Hotter. Faster. Hungrier.
He held a small ball of it in his palm and watched it dance.
Shukaku grumbled. "Show off."
Matatabi purred. "He learns quickly."
Fujin closed his hand. The fire vanished.
Then he bought more.
[Item: Hashirama Cells (Modified – No Rejection)]
[Cost: 2,000 SP]
[Wood Release (Mokuton) Unlocked.]
His body burned. New pathways opened. He felt roots grow inside his veins.
[Uchiha Techniques Pack]
[Cost: 1,500 SP]
[Contains: Chidori, Chidori Stream, Chidori Spear, Shadow Shuriken Technique, Manipulated Shuriken Technique, Fire Release: Great Fireball, Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire]
He bought it without hesitation.
[Chidori: 500 SP]
[Mastery: Instant]
The lightning gathered in his hand. Crackling. Bright. Deadly.
He smiled.
Then he closed the shop.
---
By the time Fujin turned thirteen, he had become something the era had no proper name for.
Not just prodigy. Not just special grade. Something worse.
His Mangekyo had matured years ago, right there in that room when his father reached for Sukuna. The abilities came with awakening.
Black flames that never stopped. A spectral warrior that grew with his rage. Space twisting under his gaze. Worlds built inside a single glance.
He had everything except the one Shisui carried.
That didn't bother him.
He had enough.
And still he kept gathering.
Because Sukuna kept growing. And the world kept turning into exactly the kind of place Fujin remembered it would become.
---
One evening, alone in his room, Fujin opened his status.
[Status: Ryomen Fujin]
[Age: 13]
[Level: 67]
[XP: 48,200 / 50,000]
[SP: 2,784]
[Titles: Special Grade Sorcerer, The Scriptor, Jinchuriki of Two, Heian's Hidden Storm]
[Bloodlines: Uzumaki (Pure), Uchiha (Pure), Hashirama Cells Integrated]
[Jinchuriki: Shukaku (One-Tail) – Stable, Matatabi (Two-Tails) – Stable]
---
[Core Attributes]
Strength: S
Speed: S+
Durability: S
Stamina: S+
Reflexes: S+
Intelligence: S
Battle IQ: S+
Perception: S+
Cursed Energy Pool: S+
Cursed Energy Control: S+
Chakra Conversion Efficiency: S+
Mental Resistance: S
Vitality: S+
Regeneration: A+
Stealth: S+
Hand Seals: S+
Taijutsu: S
---
[Bloodline Mastery]
Sharingan: Mangekyo Sharingan – Mastered
Uzumaki Chakra Chains: S+
Uzumaki Sealing Arts: S+
Mind's Eye of Kagura: S
Healing Bite: A+
Wood Release Adaptation: A
Magnet Release Adaptation: A+
Blue Fire Release Adaptation: A+
---
[Jutsu Inventory]
E-Rank Jutsu: · Clone Jutsu – S · Substitution Jutsu – S · Transformation Jutsu – S
D-Rank Jutsu: · Body Flicker Technique – S+
C-Rank Jutsu: · Manipulated Shuriken Technique – A+ · Shadow Shuriken Technique – A+
B-Rank Jutsu: · Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu – S · Great Fireball Technique – S · Phoenix Sage Fire Technique – S · Chidori – S+
A-Rank Jutsu: · Chidori Stream – S · Chidori Spear – S · Adamantine Sealing Chains – S+ · Advanced Barrier Sealing – S+ · Contract Lock Seal – S · Curse Suppression Seal – S+
Special Techniques: · Script of Another Tale – S+ · Amaterasu – S · Kagutsuchi – S · Tsukuyomi – S · Kamui (Short-Range) – S · Susanoo (Stage 3) – S
Kekkei Genkai Techniques: · Wood Release – A · Magnet Release – A+ · Blue Fire Release – A+
---
[Weapon Mastery]
Kunai: S+
Shuriken: S+
Sword: A
Improvised Weapons: S
Wire Tools: A+
Explosive Tags: A+
Seal Tags: S+
---
Fujin closed the screen.
Outside, Sukuna was laughing again.
Fujin already knew somebody had probably done something stupid.
He stood up and walked toward the door.
Shukaku chuckled.
"Here we go again."
Matatabi stayed quiet, but he could feel her blue fire flicker inside him.
Fujin stepped out into the night.
His brother was waiting.